EU deal to lift flight ban clouded by new volcanic ash

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said yesterday (19 April) after a ministerial video conference that more flights would now leave, easing days of disruption for millions of passengers. 

A handful of flights left Amsterdam and Frankfurt late on Monday.France said it was reopening some airports to create air corridors to Paris. Belgian and Italian airspace will open from 08:00 CET. However, planes should still be unable to leave Brussels before 14:00 CET today.Meanwhile, British air traffic controllers warned a new ash cloud was headed for major air routes, though plans to reopen airports in Scotland remained in place for 08:00 CET.European Union transport ministers agreed yesterday to gradually re-open air traffic, and defined three zones:

• One closest to the volcano, where the concentration of ash in the atmosphere is thickest and where air traffic will remain closed for safety reasons;
• another zone where partial restrictions on flights will be applied subject to local assessments and scientific advice, and;
• a third zone, where flights are unrestricted.

The gradual opening of European airspace will start at 08:00 CET this morning but the European Commission, which organised the transport ministers' meeting via videoconference, was unable to state which countries would lift the ban, saying this was in the hands of national authorities to decide.Technical work on identifying the exact boundaries of the three zones was still going on last night at Eurocontrol, which represents the air authorities in 38 European countries.The decision to start lifting the ban comes after heavy pressure from the airline industry, which has accused the EU of being slow to react."The scale of the economic impact [on aviation] is now greater than 9/11, when US airspace was closed for three days," International Air Transport Association (IATA) head Giovanni Bisignani said."We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to flexibly open air space, step by step."But Siim Kallas, the EU transport commissioner, said there would be “no compromise on safety” and that any decision on lifting the bans should be decided based on scientific data and not because of political or economic pressure.In the meantime, passengers stranded abroad are still looking for ways to repatriate themselves. Yesterday, Britain sent three of its Royal Navy warships to bring its citizens home from continental Europe. One was due to arrive in Spain.EU ministers to discuss economic impact of ash cloudHowever, it remains unclear how countries will be dealing with the economic fallout of the crisis, with some already starting to talk about a bailout package to rescue the airline industry similar to the one agreed for the banking sector in 2008.“This crisis is costing airlines at least $200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy is suffering billions of dollars in lost business. In the face of such dire economic consequences, it is incredible that Europe’s transport ministers have taken five days to organise a teleconference,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director-general and CEO.“We are far enough into this crisis to express our dissatisfaction on how governments have managed it - with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination and no leadership.”Industry losses worldwide for passenger airlines and cargo companies could reach as much as $3 billion from the cloud, Helane Becker, an analyst with Jesup & Lamont Securities, told Reuters Insider on Monday. For US airlines, she estimated the impact at $400-600 million.The Spanish EU Presidency said it would convene another meeting in the coming days or weeks to address the economic impact of the crisis.On Monday, the EU's competition chief Joaquin Almunia, said the European Commission may allow European Union governments to provide aid to airlines hit by a severe loss of revenue due to the volcanic ash cloud."If member states would decide to help with state aid and provided conditions for receiving state aid were not discriminatory, we are ready to think in a similar framework after Sept. 11," he said.(EurActiv with Reuters.)If you want to react to this article, please click here.